How to Make Pop Art Images in Photoshop

Weekends are great for learning new photoshop techniques so I thought I’d post another video tutorial today. This one teaches how to convert a regular digital image into a ‘pop art’ image in photoshop.

I don’t wish to make it sound like I don’t appreciate the work that has gone into the tutorial, because I do. I would just like to suggest that in the future you include a still image of ‘before and after’ so that readers know whether or not the video is something in which they will be interested (or whether or not it’s a technique with which they are already familiar).

http://www.goldengod.net Andrew Ferguson

Yeah, i agree with Kevin. It’d be really useful to see the effect they’re going for so I know if I should spend the time watching it.

http://latinforo.net mike

well, you can see the result as a first image, so I dont really understand the above comments.

Personally, I think that applying a bunch of filters is hardly enough to call smoething pop-art, there has to be some comoposition, some decition has to me made wether you want to contrast certain elements or not, the fact that he just polarized everything leaves a lot os noise and dirt all around… I dont think its a very good tut.

http://wafflesradio.com Chris Osborne

I’m guessing that they meant not needing to see any of the tutorial before deciding if it’s worth it. I know it was kind of a pain for me to need to see as much of the thing as I did before knowing how it would turn out.

http://digital-photography-school.com/blog Darren

Appreciate the comments but this isn’t a video I actually made – it’s one that we have brought to you via youtube. You can follow up with the author via the website luv2help.com

http://N/a Kevin B

this is cool and all, but if youre serious about this kind of stuff, get adobe illustrator, its a vector art program…
but thats all tracing and stuff, if you just wanna experiment with new ideas, stick with photoshop

http://www.gtvone.com/gtvone Sime

um… you could see the final product within about 21 seconds of the tut’ starting?.. and the starting image about 3 seconds after that.. So for somebody that doesn’t have illustrator and for someone with a basic understanding or PhotoShop (me) I thouth the tutorial was handy and I will use it, maybe, at some point or another. Thanks…

http://tjonphotography.com/blog Todd Jordan

Great tutorial. Very speedy, so I’ll have to rewatch it for sure.

What I appreciated most is that there were no advanced or tricky techniques used.

Good share.
Todd

Jim G

Without patience and tolerance,I would have niether the friends, or the skills that I posess today.Great article!! I am sure that I will have to review it several times in order to extract all the details that you included in such a short piece.THANK YOU,THANK YOU,THANK YOU!!!
Jim G

Ziv

I think mike is right. you can’t create pop art just by using a bunch of filters and blending all of them. if at least he used masks to make things more reversable if you made a mistake…
I prefer the andy worholl (hope I wrote it right) method. you select areas that you want to color (say shirt and then hair) create outlines and color it.

http://www.randomn3ss.com Mike Panic

I’m still not a fan of video tutorials, it is extremely hard to pause video, toggle between it and photoshop and back up a step.

Becky

Thanks so much for posting this. I have a new SLR and am new to Photoshop. I found this really interesting. I am really interested in learning Photoshop. I never thought of YouTube as a learning resource.

nick

did it ever occur to those wanting to see how it would turn out to simply slide the slider to the end of the video and look at the final image? This is what I did.

Sandy

I for one, enjoyed the video tutorial. Geesh, if none of you even care for the effect, why even watch? Picky, picky!

roger

It is not how much you know, it is the mumbling that negatively is affecting the teaching.

Sounds like the guy is dying there.

For heavens sake. Take some vitamins or something.

ryan s

Like the technique or not, many of us PS beginners just want to dive into the program and learn some of the things we can do. Even if it is basic and not “pop art” and you don’t like the guy explaining it, look at it this way: it is a cool way to make your pictures stand out and it’s something different. Another tool in the box if you feel like changing it up once in while

Some steps would be nice so we can follow at our own pace like Mike Panic mentioned.

Only thing I don’t like is similar to when people use Photomatrix to call the edits “HDR images.” Sorry, tonal mapping is just that…not HDR. Call it what it is–maybe someone could suggest another name for this method instead of “pop art images”?

I for one am grateful for this post

-Ryan

lola

If you are new to PS then understand that there are at least ten ways to do the same thing in photoshop. It’s up to you, your skill and what you need, to decide which method is best for you. Remember that Photoshop was developed for you to work smarter, not harder. I’ve taught PS for over 7 years – and continue to find new things to learn with it. Have fun, don’t drive yourself crazy with tutorials that have no meaning for you. I found this particular tutorial rather long but there are some important things to be learned from it, among them, filters.

http://www.dmitrimarkine.com Dmitri Markine

True, many ways to create same effects. I personally don’t use layers. I know a lot of artists use 50+ layers. If they’ll look at my work-it’s 2-4 layers max. Same result at the end,but different approach.

Charlotte

It’s not telling you that you only need to apply filters to make something pop-art- it’s just a tutorial, you’re not meant to copy it, you can compose it yourself, and hopefully, the compostion would be there in the original photograph. It was alright. I don’t mind that the guy was mumbling. That’s fine. Maybe he doesn’t really notice that, or can’t really help it. It’s not fair to judge the tutorial on that.

FARJANA

HELLO WHERE CAN U GET AN ADOBEPHOTOSHOP FOR FREE FOR KIDS TO PAINT, CREATE PICSTURES, AND THINGS AND MORE?

Latoyah

Sorry, but found this really hard to follow as somethings werent in the same place as in the video. it did look good but i suppose you have to be very familiar with photoshop. also when i was going through, some things didnt actually work! and my layer went blank

http://www.digitalartprintgallery.com Israeli Art

Thanks for an illuminating post
: )

I use the techniques outlined here to create all my digital pop art prints. My romance with digital art started out as a hobby in 2006 and I have since slowly dedicated myself to it more and more.

It seemed as if the person who made this used the magnetic lasso to outline and then just colored the trace as in black, How do you do that?

Loraine

sorry my comment did not correspond to this first video, I had selected another video and titled Line Art for “Mikey and Michelle” after this tutorial had ended and thought I was commenting on that one.

Jess

When I selected colour dodge, my picture disappeared what do i do?!

Tiff

This guy took the time to make this to help people. It’s not a 30 minute video, and it is on the page “How to Make Pop Art Images in Photoshop” so I cannot figure out what all of the complaining is about! If you can do it better…make a help video yourself and stop critiquing everyone else’s! Loved the tutorial, BTW.

Tara

Great tutorial, thanks. Here´s another site that shows great examples of photo to pop art.

Some older comments

Tara

August 20, 2009 06:23 am

Great tutorial, thanks. Here´s another site that shows great examples of photo to pop art.

Tiff

February 15, 2009 01:16 pm

This guy took the time to make this to help people. It's not a 30 minute video, and it is on the page "How to Make Pop Art Images in Photoshop" so I cannot figure out what all of the complaining is about! If you can do it better...make a help video yourself and stop critiquing everyone else's! Loved the tutorial, BTW.

Jess

January 30, 2009 01:34 am

When I selected colour dodge, my picture disappeared what do i do?!

Loraine

December 28, 2008 03:28 pm

sorry my comment did not correspond to this first video, I had selected another video and titled Line Art for "Mikey and Michelle" after this tutorial had ended and thought I was commenting on that one.

Loraine

December 28, 2008 03:22 pm

It seemed as if the person who made this used the magnetic lasso to outline and then just colored the trace as in black, How do you do that?

mollie

November 21, 2008 10:11 am

Useful but very small on You Tube.. thanks, we all need to share.

Israeli Art

April 25, 2008 08:37 pm

Thanks for an illuminating post
: )

I use the techniques outlined here to create all my digital pop art prints. My romance with digital art started out as a hobby in 2006 and I have since slowly dedicated myself to it more and more.

Check out my gallery of digital pop art and browse the giclee prints i now offer for purchase here: http://www.digitalartprintgallery.com

All comments always welcome
: )

Latoyah

January 4, 2008 08:43 am

Sorry, but found this really hard to follow as somethings werent in the same place as in the video. it did look good but i suppose you have to be very familiar with photoshop. also when i was going through, some things didnt actually work! and my layer went blank :(

FARJANA

November 7, 2007 11:10 am

HELLO WHERE CAN U GET AN ADOBEPHOTOSHOP FOR FREE FOR KIDS TO PAINT, CREATE PICSTURES, AND THINGS AND MORE?

Charlotte

November 2, 2007 08:20 am

It's not telling you that you only need to apply filters to make something pop-art- it's just a tutorial, you're not meant to copy it, you can compose it yourself, and hopefully, the compostion would be there in the original photograph. It was alright. I don't mind that the guy was mumbling. That's fine. Maybe he doesn't really notice that, or can't really help it. It's not fair to judge the tutorial on that.

Dmitri Markine

July 13, 2007 03:57 pm

True, many ways to create same effects. I personally don't use layers. I know a lot of artists use 50+ layers. If they'll look at my work-it's 2-4 layers max. Same result at the end,but different approach.

lola

May 27, 2007 11:02 am

If you are new to PS then understand that there are at least ten ways to do the same thing in photoshop. It's up to you, your skill and what you need, to decide which method is best for you. Remember that Photoshop was developed for you to work smarter, not harder. I've taught PS for over 7 years - and continue to find new things to learn with it. Have fun, don't drive yourself crazy with tutorials that have no meaning for you. I found this particular tutorial rather long but there are some important things to be learned from it, among them, filters.

ryan s

May 25, 2007 05:52 pm

Like the technique or not, many of us PS beginners just want to dive into the program and learn some of the things we can do. Even if it is basic and not "pop art" and you don't like the guy explaining it, look at it this way: it is a cool way to make your pictures stand out and it's something different. Another tool in the box if you feel like changing it up once in while :)

Some steps would be nice so we can follow at our own pace like Mike Panic mentioned.

Only thing I don't like is similar to when people use Photomatrix to call the edits "HDR images." Sorry, tonal mapping is just that...not HDR. Call it what it is--maybe someone could suggest another name for this method instead of "pop art images"?

I for one am grateful for this post :D

-Ryan

roger

May 25, 2007 01:49 pm

It is not how much you know, it is the mumbling that negatively is affecting the teaching.

Sounds like the guy is dying there.

For heavens sake. Take some vitamins or something.

Sandy

May 25, 2007 07:10 am

I for one, enjoyed the video tutorial. Geesh, if none of you even care for the effect, why even watch? Picky, picky!

nick

May 23, 2007 04:50 am

did it ever occur to those wanting to see how it would turn out to simply slide the slider to the end of the video and look at the final image? This is what I did.

Becky

May 23, 2007 12:34 am

Thanks so much for posting this. I have a new SLR and am new to Photoshop. I found this really interesting. I am really interested in learning Photoshop. I never thought of YouTube as a learning resource.

Mike Panic

May 21, 2007 11:13 pm

I'm still not a fan of video tutorials, it is extremely hard to pause video, toggle between it and photoshop and back up a step.

Ziv

May 21, 2007 10:00 pm

I think mike is right. you can't create pop art just by using a bunch of filters and blending all of them. if at least he used masks to make things more reversable if you made a mistake...
I prefer the andy worholl (hope I wrote it right) method. you select areas that you want to color (say shirt and then hair) create outlines and color it.

Jim G

May 21, 2007 07:36 am

Without patience and tolerance,I would have niether the friends, or the skills that I posess today.Great article!! I am sure that I will have to review it several times in order to extract all the details that you included in such a short piece.THANK YOU,THANK YOU,THANK YOU!!!
Jim G

Todd Jordan

May 21, 2007 02:37 am

Great tutorial. Very speedy, so I'll have to rewatch it for sure.

What I appreciated most is that there were no advanced or tricky techniques used.

Good share.
Todd

Sime

May 21, 2007 12:23 am

um... you could see the final product within about 21 seconds of the tut' starting?.. and the starting image about 3 seconds after that.. So for somebody that doesn't have illustrator and for someone with a basic understanding or PhotoShop (me) I thouth the tutorial was handy and I will use it, maybe, at some point or another. Thanks...

Kevin B

May 20, 2007 10:21 am

this is cool and all, but if youre serious about this kind of stuff, get adobe illustrator, its a vector art program...
but thats all tracing and stuff, if you just wanna experiment with new ideas, stick with photoshop

Darren

May 20, 2007 09:33 am

Appreciate the comments but this isn't a video I actually made - it's one that we have brought to you via youtube. You can follow up with the author via the website luv2help.com

Chris Osborne

May 20, 2007 06:10 am

I'm guessing that they meant not needing to see any of the tutorial before deciding if it's worth it. I know it was kind of a pain for me to need to see as much of the thing as I did before knowing how it would turn out.

mike

May 20, 2007 05:24 am

well, you can see the result as a first image, so I dont really understand the above comments.

Personally, I think that applying a bunch of filters is hardly enough to call smoething pop-art, there has to be some comoposition, some decition has to me made wether you want to contrast certain elements or not, the fact that he just polarized everything leaves a lot os noise and dirt all around... I dont think its a very good tut.

Andrew Ferguson

May 20, 2007 03:34 am

Yeah, i agree with Kevin. It'd be really useful to see the effect they're going for so I know if I should spend the time watching it.

Kevin O'Mara

May 20, 2007 01:41 am

I don't wish to make it sound like I don't appreciate the work that has gone into the tutorial, because I do. I would just like to suggest that in the future you include a still image of 'before and after' so that readers know whether or not the video is something in which they will be interested (or whether or not it's a technique with which they are already familiar).